Stonework

An eagle-eyed art expert is responsible for the discovery of a 2nd century Roman sarcophagus overgrown with plants in a Dorset, England garden. The "rare and beautifully carved" sarcophagus is expected to sell at auction for UK£50,000. (photo)

Most students of Roman history are familiar with Hadrian's Wall in northern Britain, but Roman border walls can be found throughout what was once the Roman Empire. Andrew Curry of National Geographic Magazine has the feature story.

The Nigg cross-slab, an 8th century, intricately-carved Pictish stone from Easter Ross in Scotland, has been taken to Edinburgh for restoration work at a cost of UK£180,000. Upon completion of the restoration, the stone will be returned to display at Nigg Old Church. (photos)

A group of hardline Muslim Salafists, armed with bulldozers, recently attacked the shrine of 15th-Century scholar Abdel Salam al-Asmar in Zlitan, Libya. The Salafists believe that such shrines are idolatrous.

The 4th century Roman mosaics at the Villa del Casale at the Piazza Armerina in Sicily are considered “the finest in situ in the Roman world.” Now the newly-restored stone tiles are again open to the public. (photo)

Experts from the Stonehenge Riverside Project have concluded that "Stonehenge was built as a monument to unify the peoples of Britain, after a long period of conflict and regional difference between eastern and western Britain."

Developers at the Centre for Advanced Software Technology (Cast) at Bangor University in Wales hope that their new smartphone technology will allow visitors to really enjoy the detail of the historic site.

Israel Antiquities Authority deputy director Uzi Dahari reports that vandals, possibly ultra-Orthodox Jews, have damaged a rare 5th century mosaic in a synagogue in the northern Israeli city of Tiberias.

The island of Iona was recently the site of a gathering of international experts to study the island's carved stones and grave markers, and its unique history. The workshop was sponsored by Historic Scotland and the Iona community.

Sometime between May 13-16, 2012, thieves chiseled the small stone statue of a knight from a window frame in St Michael's Church in Castle Frome, near Ledbury, England. The little knight is thought to commemorate a knight in the Crusades.

Scottish archeaologists are excited about the discovery of a bullaun or "cursing stone" linked to an early Christian cross on the Isle of Canna. The small, round stone, marked with a cross, dates to around 800 CE. (photo)

Archaeologists continue to make new discoveries that shed light on the construction and use of Stonehenge. The latest discoveries are "evidence of two huge pits positioned on celestial alignment" marking the rising and setting of the sun.

"It seems always to have stood in the churchyard at Nigg," said Liz Budge, of Nigg Old Trust about an intricately carved Pictish stone in Easter Ross, Scotland. The Nigg Old Trust has recently received a funding package of UK£178,000 for conservation and display. (photo)

Isobel Henderson found something cruious - and exciting - in a stone wall on a Highland farm building near Moray Firth, Scotland: a Pictish beast stone dating to the 5th-7th centuries. The stone is carved with a beast, crescent, comb and mirror. (photo)

For thousands of years, experts have debated how the huge stones that constitute Stonehenge were transported from Wales to their current site in southern England. Now engineer Garry Lavin has a new theory: wicker. (photo)

In her 1991 Master's Thesis, The Role of the High Cross in Early Christian Ireland: 8th to 11th Centuries, Jill Quattlebaum discusses the early Christian Church in Ireland and the importance of the stone cross as its symbol. The thesis is available to read online.

Sixty pieces of alabaster sculpture from the Victoria & Albert Museum are going on display at the Society of Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida (USA). The pieces date to the 14th and 15th century, and many still have original paint.

Anyone who has tried to assemble a piece of furniture from Ikea or Wal-Mart knows that describing the instruction manual as "medieval" is far too kind. However, a researcher at the University of Warwick in England thinks medieval builders had a superior system for conveying construction information on everything from Gothic churches to Tudor houses.

Author Bob Trubshaw is on a mission to document all the gargoyles in Leicestershire, England. He has formed Project Gargoyle which deploys a team of amateur gargoyle hunters and photographers in the first initiative of its type in England.

Experts in Fife, Scotland believe a cross carved into the wall of a farm could be "holy graffiti" created by a 13th century pilgrim on his way to the tomb of Saint Margaret. The stone was later used to build the farmer's wall.

This January, seven master stoneworkers from Japan joined a team of "rockknockers" at the International Stoneworkers' Symposium to construct castle ramparts using traditional dry stone masonry techniques in Serra Cross Park, Ventura, California.

Early European explorers in the Caribbean islands commented on the "abominable" and "frightening" figures in the locals' art, with their bared teeth and "burning" eyes. But a new analysis suggests that the artists may have intended these expressions as inviting smiles rather than demonic grimaces.

In a caper worthy of Donald E. Westlake, a group of robbers carried out a careful plan to swap a 500-pound replica Stone of Destiny for the one in Scone Palace, Perthshire, only to discover they had stolen -- a replica.